Removing a Baldwin Door Lock

I’ve changed my share of Kwikset and Schlage locksets before. These locksets install and uninstall quite similarly, so I’ve never had to drag out the manual whenever I had to re-key a door.

Tonight, I tackled my first Baldwin lockset and it was quite a challenge. So, what exactly happened? Well, I had an interior door lockset that had been jamming for quite some time. Even when the door was unlocked, I would feel resistance when turning the knob in one direction. When I started wiggling the door knob, it went from bad to worse. The knob was now stuck off-center and no amount of turning could get the knob unstuck. The real bad news was that if the door were to close, there would be no easy way to open the door again from inside or out. Thus, this was not a repair that could wait until the next morning.

From a visual inspection, I found the set screw that held the inside knob in place. A couple twists with a screwdriver fitted with a hex head freed the screw as well as the inside knob. Next the rose plate. I tugged at it. I looked for a slot to pry the plate off. I got absolutely no where. Thankfully, Baldwin’s online installation guides bailed me out. I would have never guessed that the rose plate was a screw-on. Really different from a Kwikset or Schlage.

With the rose plate removed, the rest was fairly straightforward. During the reassembly stage, I did notice that getting the screws to affix the inner assembly to the outer assembly was remarkably easy. With other brands, I occasionally get stuck for a few minutes while trying blindly to insert the screw into the corresponding hole. All in all, not a very difficult challenge if you have access to the instructions. I am not sure how anyone managed to perform home repairs pre-Internet. Even if you meticulously kept all your installation guides and operating manuals, you’ll still have to sift through boxes of documents to locate the right one, that is if the contractor who performed the original install kept it for you.